Home
by Eraasay
Summary: After being stranded on another planet for 3 months, Jack has a lot of yard work, and team bonding to start!


Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 belongs to the TV people...

Set just after that one episode when Jack got stranded on that planet and didn't think he'd ever get home, then Sam and Teal'c rescued him.

Home

After spending three months stuck on another planet, Col. Jack O'Neill found that he had a lot to catch up on at home as well as at the SGC. He had been given almost a week's leave, to recover and get everything back in order.

Jack had discovered the miserable state of his neglected yard-work. Inside his house, it was much as he had left it; fine except for extra dust, old food, and his answering machine full of messages. And he had lots of mail.

'Good thing I don't have a pet.' he though to himself.

But outside, Jack's lawn had badly needed mowing, huge weeds that were small trees in all but name had claimed his front walk and small porch, and branches that had fallen in a recent thunder storm were all over, even on the roof.

Now it was near the end of the week. By the time he was rescued, he was very used to laboring outdoors. He had collected and hauled off the fallen branches and mowed the lawn. He had almost defeated the jungle. Now Jack was determined to get rid of the tall bushy weeds. He cranked his chain-saw, waded in a little, and went to work. At first he'd planned on just using a machete but upon seeing how thick the weeds' 'trunks' were, he had decided on power tools.

The Eagles boomed from his stereo. Normally, jack liked classical music, but after being away he wanted to hear something more energetic, and American.

Hours slipped slowly by as the hero of Stargate Command sis battle with the unrelenting evils of big ugly weeds. The enemy had gotten a foothold on more of his property than he'd even wanted to realize.

Teal'c drove up in a nondescript car borrowed form the base. With him were Daniel Jackson and Sam Carter, all in civies to visit their friend. They got out and walked towards the front of the house.

Jack didn't hear the car over the chain-saw and "Life in the Fast Lane".

"O'Neill!" Teal'c bellowed.

Finally hearing them, Jack tuned around to see his team, surprisingly, standing on his front lawn staring at him.

Jack shut off the chain-saw and made his way out to meet them, nearly tripping over a pile of weeds. He lay down his weapon of choice and turned down the music.

"Hi there!" He was mostly covered in sweat, even in a Colorado summer, dirt, and bits of greenery. "What are you all doing here? You could at least call."

"You didn't answer your phone, Jack." Daniel pointed out.

"Oh." Jack said in way of an apology. He wiped the back of his hand across his face.

"...Well, how's it going?"

Jack put on his most serious U.S. Air Force face and declared, "We are at defcon three! The enemy is too far entrenched! I'm about to call in the nukes!"

Sam couldn't help laughing at this. It was good to have him back.

"No, seriously!" Jack continued, "I've been going about his all wrong." He motioned to his chain-saw and the still-out-of-control weeds, "What I need to do is to kill them first, then move them. Maybe with Teal'c's staff weapon..."

Daniel rolled his eyes and changed the subject, "Do you wanna go out somewhere?"

"Let's get ice cream."

Teal'c nearly grinned at this.

"Okay," Sam agreed.

"Good...I'll go, ah, wash up." He motioned a little awkwardly at the house. For a second, though, Jack considered simply going around back and hosing off as opposed to showering off before he remembered that his hose, being green, had accidentally fallen prey to the wrath of his chain-saw.

While Teal'c and Daniel discussed the best place to get ice cream, Sam leaned against the car, half sitting on the hood.

She had really missed Jack while he had been stranded. When they had first met him back on the planet and he had walked off in the middle of her talking excitedly to him and hugged the villager woman, Sam had felt hurt and angry at him. But she had gotten over it. Later, at their debriefing, Jack had had more time to adjust to another sudden change in where he was going to spend the rest of his life. Then he had listened intently to her explanations of how they, mainly Sam, had rescued him. He had given his team a rare, sincerely grateful smile and she knew that soon everything would be good again.

Sam stared absently at Jack's front steps, surrounded by partially chopped up weeds, and realized that her own yard must need work too. She had been on base working almost the whole time he had been stranded. Usually she would pay some neighborhood youth to do it for her. But, ever since that one time that alien had been staying with her and a Special Forces team had stormed her house, they would give her sidelong glances and hurry away with frightened looks on their faces. Oh well, she'd just have to pay them more.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Jack's return. "So, where are we going, kids?"

"Soft Stuff." Teal'c answered.

They all piled into the car. Jack, being their leader, drove and Teal'c got shotgun.

The End

Author's Note: Okay, just for context, I live in Maryland and if all the people and activity were gone then the whole place would probably be completely overgrown in a year or two. At least it seems that way sometimes. Now, the closest I've ever been to Colorado is the orange baseball cap with 'COLORADO' on it that my dad brought me from a trip, and if it isn't like that out there, then we can just pretend that Cheyenne Mountain is in western Maryland. Don't we all just love continuity?


End file.
